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More than the opposition leaders, social media influencers and YouTubers are calling the nomination of B Sudarshan Reddy as the Vice Presidential candidate a masterstroke by the opposition. But this masterstroke has many disadvantages.
It is not known whether the opposition leaders assessed them or not. The first disadvantage is that what will happen to the allegations of politicization of the judiciary now? It is true that B Sudarshan Reddy has retired more than a decade ago, but he was a Supreme Court judge.
Congress and other opposition parties used to accuse the BJP of politicizing the judiciary. It is making retired judges governors and MPs. But what will happen to this allegation now, when the opposition itself is making a retired judge contest for the Vice Presidential election?
Keep in mind that this is the first time that a retired judge is being made to contest for the Vice Presidential election. No retired judge has ever contested an election before this. It is true that the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court M Hidayatullah had held the post of Acting President. But he did not contest the election. He was given the responsibility of acting President because the posts of both President and Vice President were vacant.
Second thing is that Justice B Sudarshan Reddy, while being a judge of Supreme Court from 2007 to 2012, reprimanded the then Congress government for being careless and not taking any action in the matter of black money. Everyone knows that two years later Narendra Modi campaigned on the same issue of black money and formed the government.
Third thing is that when Justice B Sudarshan Reddy was made the first Lokayukta of Goa in 2013, the Congress party attacked him a lot and called him the yes man of the then Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar. Think about it, the Congress made the person whom it called a yes man of a BJP leader, its candidate for Vice President! The fourth thing is that Sudarshan Reddy comes from a strong farming community, like the Marathas in Maharashtra and the Jats or Bhumihars in the North, while Radhakrishnan belongs to a backward caste.
